Research Documents

The research initiative has been designed to improve the self-assessment capacities of cities and communities as the basis for planning, advocacy and community action to improve the living conditions of children. For the purpose, the research team (IRC and CERG) developed tools for communities and local authorities, which can easily be adapted to different contexts.

The Child Friendly Community Assessment Tools enable children, caregivers and community service providers to assess the degree of fulfillment of child rights by involving them in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data about living conditions for children.

The governance tool enables local authorities to look critically and comprehensively at the governance structures and processes in place for children and their families. The key features of this research include: a) a participatory methodology with easily adaptable tools for the involvement of children, parents and a community service providers; b) collection of data that can be useful for bottom-up planning and advocacy by a community; d) collection of data based on a set of common indicators of child friendliness that that can be made available by many communities to municipal governments for city-wide mapping of conditions for children for improved planning and service provision; and d) the promotion of awareness raising on child rights.

The research initiative has been enriched through the input and technical assistance of a Consultative group of experts. The first meeting of the group, held in The Hague in November 2008, provided a critical review of existing CFC assessment and monitoring approaches and identified key elements for the project’s self-assessment tools.

Download the summary of the project, including the outcomes of the Hague workshop.

2010: A Childwatch Advisory Board Meeting was arranged in Florence to critically review the CFC Research Initiative and make Proposals for Future Research.

Documentation - If you wish to download any of the following forms, please email cergnyc@gmail.com to let the research team know the name of your organisations and your country. They may want to contact you in the future to hear if you used the tools and how well they worked for you.

A brief about the Child Friendly Cities Research Initiative (updated September 2010) can found here.